If your home is anything like ours, you find all sorts scattered around the house thanks to little hands and curious minds. What is the solution?
Convenient containment
In January's blog - Tidy House, Tidy Mind - I shared tips for organizing and decluttering your home.
Conquering mess is achievable when “everything has its place”. If an item doesn’t have a home, find one.
Unfortunately, not everything can be hidden behind a door, and baskets are one of my favorite containment (storage) solutions to combat this. They are perfect for creating homes for items with nowhere to live. Also, they save you from wasting time searching for misplaced items, and gathering endless piles of stuff.
I recently put some of Toddlekind’s baskets in my daughter’s bedroom. These baskets are beautiful and well-made. But also, they are useful for more than just storing my daughter's toys.
The fact they are organic is important, but it was the pom-pom detail that sealed the deal for me.
After placing the baskets in their new home, I started thinking about other ways to use them besides toy storage.
Here are six alternative uses for the TK organic canvas storage basket.
Clutter control
Our house is double-storey - and while it's good for my step count - I don't like constantly walking up-and-down the stairs to put things away.
Enter the stair basket, your ally in the battle with clutter and returning things to where they belong. Put stray items in the basket, and next time you go upstairs take the basket with you, or at the end of the evening. If you want to, you could give each family member their own basket to take upstairs.
Bathroom storage
Small baskets are perfect for limited storage or narrow shelves. You can store multiple items within the basket, instead of keeping one item on a shelf. Baskets hold more and make the space feel cleaner and tidier.
My personal favorite is to store the spare toilet paper rolls.
Living space
Our children have a playroom, but they prefer the living room where Mummy likes to hang out. My pillows and throw blankets end up everywhere.
To organize the space, and hideaway temptations store your throw blankets, remote control or other electronic items, magazines, and newspapers. You can "pretty up" your houseplants by placing them inside a basket.
TIP: Make sure to use a plant tray inside the basket if you like to water your plants inside their decorative containers.
Laundry storage
It almost feels wrong to use something so pretty for my daughter's laundry, but the larger Toddlekind basket is the ideal storage solution for her laundry ... and ours.
Office storage
I’m learning to make shoes, and I have all sorts of material and leather offcuts that need storing. I found both the small and large basket sizes ideal for storing my shoemaking items. With leather offcuts, soling material, or glues all hidden away.
The large basket is perfect for hiding away the ugly mesh waste paper basket you have in your home office.
Entryway
We are a no-shoe household, and even have a basket of slippers at our front door for when guests come to visit. I know this is common practice in countries like Germany, and I am all for it!
Unfortunately, we constantly trip over stuff as we enter the house, and our children dispose of their hats, and gloves on the floor. As I persist in teaching them to put their things away, a simple solution to entryway clutter is cubby hole baskets.
It requires very little effort, and makes it easy for your little ones to put their things away.
The smaller baskets will hold everything from your sunglasses and purse, to hats and gloves.
Alternatively, larger baskets underneath your entryway table are ideal for keeping bigger things.
Basket tips
When my baskets arrived, they were folded for easy transits so you will find the canvas and material has creases and the pom-poms are flat. There are care instructions for this, and they worked a treat. I gave the pompoms a gentle brush (with my daughter's soft bristle baby brush) which fluffed them up straight away. I also used the steam from the iron to help steam the wrinkles. With time, the wrinkles drop away.
TIP: Don't use a steamer as they make the material wet with too much steam!
What do you use baskets for in your home? Let me know in the comments below.
Or tag Toddlekind using hashtags #prettierstorage #convenientcontainment
Cover image supplied by Toddlekind. Click here to shop the look. The image shows the organic cotton basket (in both sizes) on a Sandy Lines Playrug.
Color: Anchor
This mat elevated our whole living room. It's thick, easy to clean and absolutely stunning, enjoyed by both my toddler and my baby. My husband and I use it for exercise. And I'm sure our downstairs neighbours are enjoying it too - it absorbs most of the sound from my little one jumping around 😅
We are repeat customers for this play mat. The perfect aesthetic for our house, comfortable, soft and easy to clean. We've been happy customers for over 2 years now. Highly recommend!
